November 6, 2020 | 6:15 pm
The Senate will tackle two priority measures, the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) bill and the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) bill, once the 2021 national budget is approved.
Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III on Friday said they would be able to pass the two bills, which were already approved on final reading at the House of Representatives, before the year ends.
“There are lulls while budget bicam is ongoing, we might be able to get it through,” Mr. Sotto told reporters.
The top priority remains the passage of the P4.5-trillion national budget. The Senate will begin plenary debates on the budget once session resumes on Nov. 9.
The CREATE bill is the revised version of the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (CITIRA), which now provides for the immediate reduction of the corporate income tax to 25% from the current 30%. This will further be reduced by 1 percentage point annually beginning 2023 until 2027. The tax reductions were accelerated due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The FIST bill, on the other hand, seeks to encourage local financial institutions to sell their non-performing assets to asset management companies to cushion the impact of the pandemic on their finances.
Senate and House leaders met on Thursday to craft a common legislative agenda for the remaining 20 months of the 18th Congress in accordance with the administration’s priority legislation.
“We consider the senators as vital partners, allies and friends, and we thank the Senate leadership for this productive meeting,” House Speaker Lord Allan Q. Velasco said in a statement Thursday. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
Source: https://www.bworldonline.com/senate-eyes-create-fist-approval-before-yearend/